In compression/decompression (codec) systems, compression efficiency and video quality are important performance criteria. An important aspect of compression and video quality is the selection of quantization parameters (QP) for luma and for chroma. For example, proper selection of luma QP and chroma QP may achieved improved subjective and objective video quality. In the H.264/MPEG-4 advanced video coding (AVC) standard and the high efficiency video coding (HEVC) standard, a chroma quantization parameter (QP) is derived from luma QP through a look-up table. Furthermore, a chroma QP offset may be signaled at the picture level or the slice level to further adjust chroma QP.
The selection of chroma QP may provide subjective and objective improvements in the encoding process. Therefore, it may be advantageous to determine chroma QP offsets at the encoder. It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present improvements have been needed. Such improvements may become critical as the desire to compress and transmit video data becomes more widespread.